Vick sighting in Chicago
Posted by Mike Florio on August 12, 2009 1:33 PM ET
Free-agent quarterback Mike Vick, who is expected by his mentor/adviser Tony Dungy to sign with a new team this week, has been spotted in Chicago.
WMAQ-TV, an NBC affiliate inthe Windy City, tipped us off to scuttlebutt of Vick heading to Chicago, and before we could track down whether it was accurate video of Vick at O'Hare Airport on Tuesday night surfaced at TMZ.com.
Bears coach Lovie Smith previously has said that he believes Vick deserves a second chance, but Smith has deflected interest in Vick.
"As far as we're concerned, we like the team we have right now," Smith said after Vick was reinstated on July 27. "So if you're asking me about whether we're looking for receivers or are we going to trade guys, we like this team. I don't think we need to add anything else at this time.''
But Smith used to work for Dungy in Tampa, and they remain close friends. Here's what we said about the Chicago option on July 28: "If the Bears hadn't already acquired Jay Cutler from the Broncos, we think coach Lovie Smith would have been Dungy's first target, given the close relationship between the two former colleagues. Even with Cutler on the team, the Bears become a Wildcat option for Vick, if Dungy can't place Vick anywhere else."
Then again, there's a chance that this is merely a Drew Rosenhaus-Willis McGahee phony phone call ruse, with Vick flying to Chicago in order to create enough of a buzz to get someone in some other NFL city to pull the trigger and sign him.